German engineering workers strike to press pay demands

STUTTGART/HAMBURG (REUTERS) - Almost 100,000 metal and electrical workers went on strike across Germany on Tuesday as they sought to put pressure on their employers to increase a pay offer, engineering union IG Metall said.

The union is calling for wage hikes of up to 5.5 per cent for some 3.7 million workers from May. It has so far rejected an offer from employers to increase wages by 2.3 per cent from July following two months without a raise.

IG Metall and employers are due to start a third round of negotiations in Baden-Wuerttemberg on Tuesday. Any agreement reached in the state home to major carmakers such as Daimler and Porsche would set the tone for wage hikes in the engineering sector nationwide.

Negotiations are due to restart in the southeastern state of Bavaria, where BMW has its headquarters, on Wednesday.